The Volkswagen GTI is both a high-value, practical playtoy and a fetishized object. The R-series Golfs take the concept to something nearing its logical end--if the logical end means more power and more weight. While the R32 packed a heated-up version of the company's venerable VR6 powerplant, the new Golf R appropriates the Nihonesque formula of extra turbo coupled with AWD--which the Japanese, of course, borrowed from Volkswagen subsidiary Audi, who pioneered the concept back in the 1980s.

Featuring either a lightly detuned version of the Audi TTS's 2.0T or a hepped-up-on-refined goofballs rendition of the GTI's engine--depending on one's point of view--the R's four-pot engine cranks out 256 hp and 243 lb-ft of torque. The Haldex AWD system--Volkswagen calls it 4Motion, Audi calls it quattro, you call it corn--is the same component set found in the Audi TTS and TT RS, and it leaves the Golf feeling startlingly similar to its more expensive platform-mates, despite the fact that the lighter TT has what the Germans call a “hybrid construction of aluminum und schteel,” while the VW makes do with a monometallic structure of plain old schteel.

What is it like to drive?

Despite the lack of aluminum and the wholly dissimilar body style, this top Golf feels remarkably similar to the TT RS, a car that can trade for about double the three-door VW's $33,990 base price. (The five-door starts at $36,090.) Unlike the Subaru WRX and STI, where the AWD imparts a sense of genuine neutrality or the Lancer Evolution, in which the system conspires to turn the most butterfingered poltroon into a back-road hero, the system implemented by Volkswagen and Audi never lets you forget that you're piloting what's essentially a front-drive car.

The liberal nannies allow the rear to hang out in corners, but the whole experience is definitely of the FWD variety, albeit without that pesky torque steer. Like the TT RS, the R is manual-only in the United States, a reversal from the last R32 we saw here, which was strictly a DSG affair. The 5,000 cars bound for our shores over the next two years also dispense with the adjustable suspension the Europeans get, though we didn't miss the comfort-oriented settings, even on some of the nastier pavement we encountered.

The steering is nicely weighted but never feels particularly heavy; body motion is very controlled. Despite its extra heft, the trickery applied to the R means that it drives like a much lighter machine than the bog-standard Golf. Indeed, subjectively, it feels as if it slots somewhere in between the zingy WRX and the muscular STI, despite making less power than either of Subaru's machines.

It also features a nicer interior than any of its Japanese competitors. In fact, for similar money, an STI or an Evo GSR will blow it into the weeds. For considerably less money, a WRX will do the same. On the other hand, you'll also have to contend with interiors that, for the price point, could only be described as janky. Actually, given that the Hyundai Veloster offers a fine passenger compartment for under $18,000, there's really no excuse for Mitsubishi and Subaru's treatment of their vehicles' occupants. In fact, it's so different in character from the Asian offerings that it really doesn't feel as if it's in the same category. Essentially, its real competitors are other Volkswagen products: the GTI and the Beetle Turbo at the low end and the TTS a rung up the ladder.

Do I want it?

Would you like a warmer GTI that you can take to the snow? Do you want a TTS but need the practicality of a friends-and-family-oriented hatch? Perhaps you simply feel like shelling out A4 money for a mere Golf?

At the end of a day spent fiddling about on the B roads south of San Francisco, three writers in the 35-to-40, college-educated white-male demographic piled into the R to head back over State Route 92 toward the seaside hamlet of Half Moon Bay. One of us cued up the Cure's “Fascination Street.” The other two agreed that the situation had somehow just turned into the setup for a commercial.

If you're only in the market for a fast, AWD turbo nutmobile, look to the East. For roughly the same money, an STI or an Evo will bend your brain in significantly more ludicrous ways. The Golf R is something else, a fine car for pre-midlife semi-gents who don't have time for a crisis.